Tuesday, May 6 2008

Extracurricular Activities

The MSM is starting to take note. Reuters picks up on Awad al-Qiq, a UNRWA school headmaster whose personal extracurricular curricular included constructing rockets for Islamic Jihad. To say there's tension between Israel and UNRWA is an understatment:

The Israeli air strike that killed the 33-year-old last week also laid bare his apparent double life and embarrassed a U.N. agency which has long had to rebuff Israeli accusations that it has aided and abetted guerrillas fighting the Jewish state . . . .

Qiq's body was wrapped in an Islamic Jihad flag at his funeral, pictorial posters in his honour still bedeck his family home this week, and a handwritten notice posted on the metal gate at the entrance to the school declared that Qiq, "the chief leader of the engineering unit", would now find "paradise".

That poster was removed soon after Reuters visited the Rafah Prep Boys School, run by the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian refugees. Staff there said on Monday that UNRWA officials had told them not to discuss Qiq's activities.

No one from the United Nations attended the funeral or has paid their respects to the family, relatives said, adding that Qiq's widow and five children had heard nothing about a pension . . . .

Israel has long alleged that militants use UNRWA vehicles and facilities. The United Nations has denied those charges, although some UNRWA employees have had prominent political roles in groups like Hamas -- such as teacher Saeed Seyam, who was interior minister in the Hamas-led government elected in 2006.

The Independent also took note of al-Qiq's double life. And a blunt NY Post staff-ed says the UNRWA has some 'splaining to do.

Posted at
10:11 AM

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